Sol Invictus
by DreadNot
Summary: After the war, life goes on for those who still have their lives. For those who have lost everything, it's an opportunity to make a new life, or new lives. Dark Walter, AAxI, AU, Manga set.


_Dragontalon666 asked me for DWxIxAA for a gift fic. Well, that was a bit beyond my ability to deliver as an actual threesome. So, we have understood AAxI and Dark Walter interaction. Hellsing is Hirano's, not mine. I don't make any money - he deserves every penny, yen, peso, or cowrie shell he earns for Hellsing.

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Walter stood in the ruins of London and sifted ash through his bare fingertips, smoothing the velvet soft powder into the scarred whorls of the skin of his finger pads. It was the longest night of the year. A night a vampire could sink his teeth into, so to speak.

Humans had sought to find hope in the longest night. After the longest night, after all, the days lengthened again. The Romans called it _Dies Natalis Invicti Solis,_ the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.

Such optimism in that title.

He looked at the grey smudges on his fingertips and shook his head – this was where human optimism led. _Ashes. Ashes. All fall down. _

More than a year had passed since the end of the war. He knew in his soul that Millennium was not vanquished, even if human media trumpeted the victory of British Special Forces, Vatican heroes, (oh the human miracle called "spin") and the as-yet unspinnable decision by some unnamed American general to drop an atomic bomb on his own national capital.

It was time to witness another act of human optimism.

He moved silently through the wreckage – so little of London remained. Still, it was at least not a radioactive hole in the ground like Washington. Parts of the city were still occupied by humans, but he had not traveled there, not trusting himself around so much fresh, hot food.

Millennium's mad scientist may have thought himself a genius, but Walter regretted the genius had not given him better self-control when he took the butler's humanity. Maybe he wouldn't have spent more than a year trying to escape the inescapable.

The end of the world had not changed hospitals. He smelled it before he saw the building, and squinted when its brilliant lighting seared his night-sensitive eyes.

He slipped through the whoosh and rattle of the automatic doors and did not meet the eyes of the receptionist as he followed the silent call that had brought him out among humans for the first time since the end of the fighting.

He knew he was in the right place, but it was confirmed for him by a glimpse of the hulking figure of the man who had killed Alucard. He stepped into an unoccupied room and waited until he finally heard the big man's footsteps moving away.

They would have business later. Walter had other things to take care of first.

Even he was nervous as he stood outside the door that Father Anderson had been guarding. Many things had changed since he last faced the room's occupant. He didn't give himself time to think, pulling the door open and slipping inside.

"Alexander?" Integral looked up, her smile dropping away into blank shock. "Walter…?"

He pretended not to notice her hand inching under the blanket while he admired the child cradled in her other arm. "Congratulations on the birth of your son. What did you name him?"

"Adam." Integral's lips trembled before she drew them tight, looking exhausted but resolute. "Adam Walter." Her hand had stopped moving, and he estimated from the lump under the blanket that he would have an extremely large hole where his heart had been if she chose to fire the gun hidden there.

That was assuming he allowed her to hit him, of course.

"Hellsing or Anderson?" Walter asked, genuinely interested.

"What are you doing here?" The baby squirmed in her arm and began to nuzzle where his cheek rested against her skin. Walter watched him in fascination while Integral regarded her former servant with equal intensity.

"He looks like you did." Walter smiled faintly, looking like the man Integral had grown up with for just a moment. "The same complexion and hair."

"Stop it!" she snapped, making Adam flinch and throw his arms out reflexively. "You're dead." She'd seen one of Alucard's bullets take half of his head off.

"Technically, yes." He held his hands out in apology. "But not for what you're thinking of. That bullet to the brain was the biggest favor Alucard could have done me – it went right through the chip that had been installed when I was turned."

"Are you here to try to hurt us?" Integral's right shoulder raised imperceptibly as her fingers tightened on her weapon. The baby's quiet noises were growing louder, sounding more and more like the escalating boil of a teakettle.

"I am here to give your son a birthday gift, if you allow." Walter pulled his gaze away from Adam, who was starting to complain that his mother's arm was not supplying what he was looking for. "Every Hellsing should have a vampire servant."

They stared at each other long minutes. Having a vampire servant had been a mixed blessing for Integral. Power bought and paid for with blood might have been what stopped Millennium, but had that same power attracted them in the first place?

"Why should I trust you?"

"Other than because I could have killed you and Adam a dozen times over before you could pull the trigger on the gun in your hand?" He shook his head in a familiar gesture of disappointed disapproval. "Really, Integra, I thought I taught you better."

Adam reached full boil while Integral stared unblinking at her former retainer. She glanced down at her wailing son and back up to the waiting vampire. "All right Walter, welcome back to Hellsing." She gestured to a visitor's chair on the other side of her bed from the door. "But sit behind me; Alexander is going to take some convincing.

"And turn around. It's just too much to have you watch me breastfeeding."


End file.
